It has been a source of ongoing sadness to read of the difficulties Lauren Richardson’s father has had over the course of the past several months. For those of you who are not familiar with her case, Lauren overdosed on heroin on August 28, 2006. She suffered oxygen deprivation and, as a result of the overdose, is now in a coma and unable to speak out for herself. At the time of the overdose, Lauren was expecting a baby. Her parents honored what they knew would have been her wish and did all they could to keep her healthy and comfortable until the child was born. Today, though Lauren may not be aware of it, she is the mother of Ember Grace, who was born in February 2007.

Since the birth of her daughter, Lauren remains unable to speak of her concerns, but she has a loving father who is doing all he can to protect her from suffering the same fate as Terri Schiavo. However, Lauren’s mother, who has been named her legal guardian, is sadly not of the same opinion and is working with attorneys to pressure the courts to permit Lauren’s starvation.

Lauren’s father has kept hope alive, even at times when there appeared to be no hope in human terms. Lauren’s father is a man of hope in Christ and is dedicated to spending every breath he has on defending Lauren, regardless of what it might cost him in physical exhaustion and worldly goods. The most recent update for those concerned about Lauren tells us the following:

We struggle at times as we seek to share with the public the details of what is happening with Lauren because of the disagreement we have with Lauren’s mother. We cannot understand her reasoning in refusing a path of hope, healing and restoration for Lauren and insisting on causing her death by withholding food and water from her. The issue in Lauren’s case is the eternal truth that all people, no matter what their medical condition, bear the image of God and deserve basic care and an opportunity to be restored to health.

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s brother, has written about Lauren in an editorial earlier this year, "False Compassion," and is working closely with Lauren’s father in order to provide expertise that he is uniquely qualified to share during a trying time like this.

There are many links on the Life for Lauren web site that will assist you in tracking this case and learning who is supporting Lauren’s ongoing care and who is opposing it. More importantly, there is something you can do to express your concerns.

ACTION NEEDED NOW

The governor of Delaware, Ruth Ann Minner, is being asked by pro-life Americans across this nation to intervene in this case in order to save Lauren from what many fear is an imminent court order dictating that Lauren be starved and dehydrated to death. I am asking you to be one of those who communicates your passionate belief that Lauren’s life is sacred and deserves to be protected from those who would order her death. The governor’s e-mail address is governor.minner@state.de.us.

Further, it would mean a great deal to Lauren’s father, Randy, if you sent him a copy of your e-mail to Governor Ruth Ann Minner. Randy’s e-mail address is Lifeforlauren@aol.com.

During a recent visit to Anchorage, Alaska where Bobby Schindler was invited to speak, he told a reporter from The Catholic Anchor, "Once we accept that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, we lose any type of parameters. Euthanasia is a form of abandonment. It is not compassion."

Truer words were never spoken. As I frequently tell people who argue that we pro-lifers are being heartless and cruel for fighting to defend the rights of a "hopeless case," "God is the author of every human being’s life, and He has never given permission to a single one of us to arbitrarily rob another human being of life for any reason including disability or illness."

As Flannery O’Connor once wrote on the subject of false compassion, "In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness. And tenderness leads to the gas chamber."

Lauren Richardson is not terminal – she is severely disabled. Lauren Richardson should not be murdered.

Judie Brown is president of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

This topic, in a thread by AzNASCARfan, still nags me. I go back to my high school days in Springfield and recall the way things were in what is now this socialist enclave. After the Weekly Reader, the Register-Guard was our only source for news. Thanks, wagglebee, for the ping.

After a rough couple of weeks, Barbara Wagner finally got some good news Monday.

Last month, she found out that her lung cancer, which had been in remission for about two years, had come back. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life, Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldnt cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide....

One of my favorite times of the day is logging onto Facebook, to see what my friends are up to.

I find some friends have posted photos...others have joined groups ranging from UK Beekeepers to Evangelium Vitae...others have become fans of Mother Teresa or Ronald Reagan...and still others are giving status reports on what they did this past weekend.....

PP locks in a death struggle with the truth in this thread by wagglebee.

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates in California are going after a state ballot proposition that would allow parental notification on abortions. They are saying the measure's ballot summary should be changed because the teen the law is named after was married at the time of the abortion that killed her.

Named for a 15-year-old girl who died just four days after a legal abortion left her with a torn cervix and fatal infection, Sarah's Law, if approved, will protect the health and safety of young girls.

The California Secretary of State qualified Sarah's Law for the November ballot after backers submitted enough signatures for it and named it Proposition 4.

But California Planned Parenthood advocates have sued state officials saying Sarah was in a common-law marriage with a man from Texas at the time of her death....

The medical histories of the dead children of the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute, China's showcase orphanage, read like macabre experiments in human starvation:

Ke Yue, a girl, was admitted to the orphanage in November 1989, the month of her birth. Two and a half years later, on June 9, 1992, orphanage doctors recorded that she had developed "thirddegree malnutrition," was "breathing in shallow gasps." On June 10 she was admitted to the medical ward, where she died later the same day. Two separate causes of death were diagnosed by her physician, Wu Junfeng: "severe malnutrition" and "congenital maldevelopment of brain."

Huo Qiu, a girl born in approximately February 1988, arrived at the orphanage on January 3, 1991, at the age of 3. One and a half years later, on June 16, 1992, she was diagnosed as suffering from "severe malnutrition" and "cerebral palsy." A week later, she was dead. According to her medical records, she died of the two illnesses just mentioned, together with, for good measure, "mental deficiency."

Oklahomans may be surprised to learn the state shares a dark past with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Eugenics, the wonder science of the early 1900s, hailed by academics worldwide as a means to improve a race by sterilizing those who possessed serious heredity defects, was also embraced by Gov. Alfalfa Bill Murray. This book, "In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near-Triumph of American Eugenics (W.W. Norton, $24.95) by Victoria F. Nourse, examines how a scientific theory about nature was transformed into the basis of social policy ordained by the power of the state of Oklahoma.

The case's backdrop began in 1927 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a forced sterilization of a feebleminded girl in the case of Buck v. Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough. The law deferred to the state of Virginia's right to regulate health and safety........

BIRMINGHAM -- Freedom. That's the main thrust of the campaign Jack Kevorkian says he is pushing in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills. Kevorkian held a community roundtable Friday night at the Birmingham Community House on Bates Street. Kevorkian, who is running as an independent, faces Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters in the November election.

Famous for his legal battles involving assisted suicide, Kevorkian spoke to a small group of people, quoting Thomas Jefferson, Bernard Shaw and Benjamin Franklin.

"I'm not doing this for personal gain, I'm here to educate and inform the public," he said, likening the electorate to sheep who have been denied their rights....

It has been a year. Many things have changed, some have not. But as I sit at this monitor, I recall each and every day even if only fleeting, the greatness of this giant of conservatives and the inspiration he left behind. Tim loved our country and he loved FreeRepublic. He is missed as sorely today as he was before, and may he continue to inspire us in spirit.

Thanks, wagglebee, for reviving the thread.

.........................................

A great FReeper and close friend passed. T’wit, also known as Timothy Wheeler passed on. In tribute, I would like to make this the August thread of Terri Dailies, the topic foremost in T’wit thoughts.

Tim was a man of great faith, a faith that grew stronger especially in recent months. As I type this, I still am not yet coherent, as I try to awaken and sip a good coffee brought to me recently by Tim. In his usual fashion, he probably figured I would appreciate a little care package and would appreciate the better quality than the usual fare we would fix.

But I do not want this thread to be maudlin, nor a reminiscing on anecdotes, rather a stab at what Tim would want.........................

T'wit would be glad for some of the new stories and would be glad some are now "getting it". And it is reason to persevere.

Thread by wagglebee.

.................................

Casper, WY (LifeNews.com) -- Opponents of assisted suicide have always said that legalizing the grisly practice would lead to euthanasia, where patients would be killed without their request or consent. A Wyoming man who was formally brain dead and comatose is glad that his parents didn't listen to doctors, who suggested taking his life.

Kevin Monk suffered both several psychical and brain injuries when he was injured in an automobile accident eight years ago.

The 25-year-old went into a coma after the impact of the accident and had no brain function for 18 days afterwards.

Monk spent three months in the coma and, during that time, he told the Casper Star-Tribune that his physicians apparently tried to talk his parents into taking his life.

"Some of the doctors told Mom and Dad to just pull the plug," Monk said, upset to learn that now that he's recovering from his injuries. "Doctors are there to heal, not to give up."....................

As you now are quite literally in the "valley of the shadow of death," may our prayers be heard for your protection and comfort as we await decisions by mortals on your future.

We continue our prayers for that safety, for protection against those dark forces of evil who would see a similar fate as achieved with Terri and failed with Janet Rivera, Sam Golubchuk and others. May we all persevere as did Sophie Scholl and may we prevail.

Midland, TX (LifeNews.com) -- A Chinese couple is happily living in Texas after escaping both religious persecution and a potential forced abortion for breaking China's one-child family planning law. Bob and Heidi Fu are but one example of the human rights problems Chinese people face despite China's holding the Summer Olympics.

When Fu and his wife discovered they had become pregnant with their first child -- without getting permission from the government -- they knew they had to leave the country.....

My wife, the luscious Rambette, is carrying our fourth child, due sometime around February 15th. The problem is she's now been to the emergency room twice for spotting. Both times turned out to be no danger of a miscarriage, but we were told there may be some separation of the placenta. That means that it can be expected to either resolve itself, or it could conceivably get worse and result in miscarriage....

Generation Life gathered Friday at noon with the Bucks County Pro-life Coalition for its third "Show the Truth" tour of the summer.

The pro-life organizations lined Route 13 and Veterans Highway holding fetal development and aborted babies pictures and signs that said, "America is better than abortion," "Obama supports abortion" and "America is better than Obama."

Other "Show the Truth" displays took place earlier this month along Roosevelt Boulevard and Route 3. Judi Neeld, director of Generation Life, said the group plans to have at least four more campaigns before the November election. The high traffic picket area for this exhibit is only minutes from Bucks County Planned Parenthood headquarters; Planned Parenthood is the leading provider of abortion in the United States.

In addition to the signs holders, two people distributed brochures detailing Sen. Barack Obama's stance on various life issues. While politicians tend to use unflattering pictures of their opponents when exposing their policies, Mrs. Neeld said Generation Life found "the best picture of Obama" for their brochure "so people will actually read it." "Some people think he's pro-life," Mrs. Neeld said incredulously. "I don't think all Americans really look into these issues when they choose their candidates." She said the best reaction to the tour the group could get is "someone taking brochure, reading it and seeing where [Sen. Obama] stands on these issues."

Says poorly of the State of Washington that this measure even has a chance or even a tiny percentage of support. Thread by wagglebee.

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll shows a plurality of voters favor a measure appearing on the November ballot in Washington that would make the state the second to legalize assisted suicide. Only Oregon currently allows the grisly practice and I-1000 would have Washington state follow suit.

The latest statewide Elway Poll of Washington voters shows so many voters are undecided about where they stand on the measure that neither side has a majority......

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